RFS feel-good update (1/19): It's National Run for Office Day!!
The best holiday of 2021 so far.
Hi all -
Happy National Run for Office Day!!!
National Run for Office Day is our special holiday in which we do exactly what it sounds like: Recruit candidates to run for office. Here’s a few of the many many ways we’re celebrating…
We’ve launched Runforofficeday.com — it’s absolutely gorgeous.
You may have gotten a holiday postcard from us... (Check your mail! If you got one, post it on social and tag us!)
We’re working with more than 50 partners, elected officials, alumni and celebs to talk/post/share details about running for office.
There’ll be a series of Instagram Lives throughout the day featuring our alum, candidates, and some special celebs, all talking about running for office.
Some awesome partner events:
United We Dream is having its first DREAMer candidate recruitment webinar.
Collective PAC, Higher Heights & RFS are partnering for a Clubhouse chat with current young electeds.
It is fitting that National Run for Office Day is the day before Inauguration — after all, we launched RFS exactly four years ago tomorrow. I’m so unimaginably proud of what we’ve built together, and so excited to keep doing this work with you.
I am especially fired up because after the last few weeks, we have seen exactly how deep the rot of the Republican Party goes.
It’s not enough to get Trump out of the White House. The entire party is filled with his acolytes and similarly dangerous leaders.
Democrats have to contest and genuinely fight for elections at every level and in every community or dangerous people will continue to win, normalize their extremism, pass policies to hold onto power, and rise through the ranks.
A few stories that, fair warning, may alarm you, but are worth reading…
Time magazine: “The Republican Party —including local, state and federal lawmakers and elected officials, and dozens of local Republican Party chapters—actively supported the Jan. 6 rally, both logistically and by leveraging their institutional platforms to promote falsehoods and encourage Trump supporters’ grievances. More than two dozen Republican lawmakers and other elected officials personally attended the rally, and at least one was caught on video storming the Capitol building during the riot. Many of these Republican Party members remain fervent Trump supporters and continue to repeat and amplify his baseless claims.”
NYTimes: “While some Republican leaders and strategists are eager to dismiss these [Trump] loyalists as a fringe element of their party, many of them hold influential roles at the state and local level. These local officials are not only the conduits between voters and federal Republicans, but they also serve as the party’s next generation of higher-level elected officials, and would bring a devotion to Trumpism should they ascend to Washington.”
“The mayor of the 7,500-person town on Washington's Olympic Peninsula recently promoted QAnon during a public radio interview, telling listeners to go watch a well-known QAnon conspiracy video. A recording of that interview was posted on Sequim’s official website and boosted by the city’s Twitter account. But the baseless far-right conspiracy theory isn’t being promoted just by mayors of small communities in a remote corner of the United States. At least two Republican candidates for the Washington Legislature have knowingly spread QAnon content online.”
Politico: “One month before the riot at the Capitol, more than 60 Republican state lawmakers from Pennsylvania signed onto a letter urging the state’s congressional delegation to object to results of the presidential election. Across the border in Maryland, a Republican state legislator helped organize buses to take people to the protest that preceded the riot. A West Virginia lawmaker went even further, donning a helmet as he filmed himself rushing the Capitol. As the Republican Party begins to reckon with the fallout from the deadly insurrection, it’s being forced to confront a disquieting truth: the lie that ultimately led to the violence — that the election was stolen from President Donald Trump — drew far-reaching support from the party’s governing class at every level, extending far beyond Congress and reaching deep into America’s statehouses.”
I missed this back in December: A far-right militia is quietly taking over local government in a small county in Texas.
This, which is sure to happen, and is one of many reasons why Run for Something works with candidates for election administration positions:
To zoom back, it’s worth being specific: All this is the outcome of the Koch brothers/Karl Rove 40-year plan to win permanent power.
I can promise you: The Run for Something 40 year plan to build sustainable Democratic power absolutely will not end in an attempted coup. Be a part of it.
Ok, back to good things. Here’s a few of the highlights of the work RFS alumni & candidates are doing around the country:
Indiana state Sen. J.D. Ford, the first openly gay member of the legislature, has introduced legislation to ban LGBTQ conversion therapy for minors.
On his first few weeks on the job, Washtenaw county attorney Eli Savit has been on a tear — he ended the county’s work prosecuting consensual sex work, rescinded the zero-tolerance policies, ended cash bail, and changed their policies around drug prosecution. Electing progressive DAs is good! Let’s do more of it!
IL state Sen. Robert Peters has been fighting for years as an activist to end cash bail. Last week, as a state legislator, he passed the bill into law. A full-circle moment!
Jezebel named Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo one of their sheroes of the year for her work to expand access to the polls during the 2020 election.
MI state Sen. Mallory McMorrow is calling for action to ban weapons from the state capitol.
FL state Rep. Anna Eskamani has introduced legislation that would entirely overhaul Florida’s broken unemployment insurance system.
NYC council candidates Amanda Farias and Elisa Crespo have released an ambitious plan to combat domestic violence and support survivors - it’s worth reading.
Moumita Ahmed and Jaslin Kaur are part of a wave of South Asian candidates in NYC running to make history and bring important representation to the community.
This is a really lovely profile of Bushra Amiwala, a longtime RFS alum and the youngest Muslim elected official in the country.
In a few pieces of related reading:
In his Message Box newsletter, Dan Pfeiffer outlined priorities for the Democratic Party and highlighted Run for Something as one of the essential organizations for the party’s future success. He’s spot on about the need for infrastructure investment — and I’d say that even if he wasn’t donating all proceeds from new subscriptions now through the end of the month to us, I promise.
This is the best and most concise summary of the Democratic Party ecosystem I’ve read in a while. It’s certainly not exhaustive, but it’s a very strong start, and worth reading if you’re trying to understand the lay of the land.
On the Run for Something podcast today: It’s National Run for Office Day! I talk with my co-founder, Ross Morales Rocketto, what the holiday means and why you should run for office. Plus: What we're hopeful for out of a Biden administration, what accountability for the Republican party looks like, and more. Get the episode wherever you get your shows.
Some odds and ends for you:
If you’re feeling anxious about Inauguration, join us for a morning moving meditation/yoga class over Zoom at 7:45 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Tickets start at $25.
We’re hiring for a communications & special projects manager — if you know someone who should apply, send this their way!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Four years ago today, we were anxiously prepping to launch this lil’ idea of an organization. Today, we’ve changed what leadership looks like in our country and dramatically improved lives for millions of Americans. It wouldn’t have been possible without you, and it won’t be possible moving forward without you. It’s a privilege to do this work, and a joy to do it with this team.
Happy beginning of a new era,
Amanda